How Are You Managing Your Time and Attention???

The Dilemma

Plain and simple... you can’t be great at something if you don’t invest time and attention into it. You may be able to briefly step away and think all is well...but don’t be fooled. Long term, whatever was under your care will start to fade when you step away from it. This is why it’s essential to decide how you direct your time and attention.

The pace of innovation in the world is faster than ever now. There are 24 hours in a day, and many of us (myself included) have more work, demands and responsibilities than we have the time to address it all.

So How Do You Address This Dilemma?

You have to be intentional with your time. Allocate your time in advance. Plan your day and week in advance, then execute according to the plan. Yes, there will be interruptions. Handle the interruptions and then quickly get back to the plan. Work the plan. Period.

Prioritize your list of tasks/projects. 10 things can’t possibly be top priority. Look at the big picture... go after the big rocks, the needle movers. Put everything else on the back burner.

You have to stop saying yes to everything. “But Greg, I don’t want to disappoint anyone”. You can’t please everybody. No one can. Once you accept this truth, saying no to tasks/projects when you are oversubscribed suddenly becomes easier. You actually are doing your customers a disservice if you know you don’t have the bandwidth to take on a project but you still commit to it anyway.

Stop being afraid to ask for help. Don’t wait, miss a deadline, and then cry over the ‘spilled milk’. If you need help let someone know right then and there. Escalate if you need to, to get the support you need.

Learn to scale yourself. You don’t need to be directly involved in the end to end process of every project. You’re going to burnout if you don’t scale yourself... it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

Become an orchestrator of a project, being hands on and directly involved only where it makes sense. Delegate what you can and pull in additional resources to make it a team win. Conserve your bandwidth for when your unique skills are truly needed.

Closing

“But Greg, who made you an authority in all of this?”I’ve been in the game 20 years. I’ve been battle tested and I’ve walked away with the wisdom and scar tissue to back this up.

Have a blast in the comments!!!